Pain can last a lifetime for NRL players

As premiership winners Anthony Minichiello and Jason King prepare for their final few weeks in the NRL, they have to plenty to think about for life after football. Both have had to endure more than their fair share of injuries, but just how much of an impact will that have on their future? Five former players tell of the toll league injuries continue to take on their lives.

Shaun Timmins

Former Illawarra Steelers and St George Illawarra player Shaun Timmins continues to battle injuries from his playing days.

The former St George Illawarra utility has had 17 knee operations in his life, not to mention a shoulder reconstruction, an elbow reconstruction and a plate inserted into his face after a fractured cheekbone.

But for Timmins, the knees are the big problem. He is no longer able to run.

His knees plagued him throughout his career and limited him to just rowing, swimming and boxing training in the final four years of his playing days. He also had to have his knee drained after every game.

He regularly has arthroscopic surgery, but last year it didn't go as planned.

"I got an infection after it and I ended up in hospital for three weeks," Timmins says. "I've never been so crook in my life."

However, it's the simple things in life he wishes he could do.

"I'd love to play touch footy, or even just be able to chase after my kids," he says.

"My missus just went and bought me a skateboard so that I could chase after my kids at the park because I can't run. They are three and five-years-old, so when they are on their bikes at the park it's hard to keep up with them. But in saying all that I would do it all again, it was worth it."

Kevin Campion

New Zealand Warriors forward Kevin Campion. Picture: REUTERS

During the 2000 season at the Broncos, Campion was told by the club doctor to hang up his boots at the end of that year because of his neck injury.

He ignored the advice and played on for four more seasons, and still feels impact of that injury – nerve damage that affects his upper body.

"From my neck I get numbness in both arms," Campion says.

"All my fingers are basically numb. I have full movement in them but I can't feel anything any more, you could chop them off if you wanted to and I wouldn't feel it. I had those problems when I was playing, I knew how bad it was in 2000 at the Broncos, and I was told 'that should be your last year'.

"It's more annoying than anything. But I don't want to go in and have a scan because I'm frightened to find out how bad it is. I'm happy to live with it because knowing how bad it is frightens me."

Campion says he struggled to maintain his weight after he retired but is now back to his playing weight of 93 kilograms.

"When I retired, I vowed I would never train again but then I put on 15 kilos and my body couldn't cope," he says.

"I looked in the mirror one day and saw how fat I was. So I started running and now I'm doing half marathons every year and did a full marathon once. That helps me keep the weight off."

Jamie Goddard

Jamie Goddard, in action for the Northern Eagles.

The former Gold Coast Chargers, North Sydney Bears and Northern Eagles hooker has remained fit after his career, but the lingering effects of his time in rugby league are beginning to take their toll.

Goddard played 11 seasons at the top level, including four games for Queensland in State of Origin.

The toll of all those seasons on his body isn't as severe as what some others have experienced, but Goddard says he lives with constant reminders of what he went through on the football field.

"I still get a lot of pain because of my neck," he says.

"I still get pins and needles down the right side of my arm. It has really started to kick in over the last 18 months, getting the tingles down that side of my body.

"I went and saw someone about it but they just told me it was the wear and tear of years of stress on the body. Sometimes it's really painful, other times it just comes and goes."

Goddard also has no cartilage left in either knee, and is no longer able to run on hard surfaces.

"For the most part of the last 10 years, I've been training and doing triathlons," he says.

"But I've had a clean-out of both knees recently and they are gone now. There's no cartilage in them and I can't road run any more. I train down at the beach, I do boxing and running on soft sand."

Steve Turner

The former NSW winger is concerned he'll need to undergo a knee replacement following the injury that brought his career to a premature halt one game into last year's season.

Turner, who was 28 when he retired, played without a posterior cruciate ligament for the final seven years of his career.

The former Panthers, Storm and Bulldogs player says he has been operated about 12 times, with five operations on his right knee.

He also had surgery to repair a shoulder and thumb, two on his ankle, three on his foot plus another on his "good" knee.

"Every now and then it swells up," Turner says. "My knee is bone and bone, and heading into the 2013 season I was training once or twice a week to manage the workload on my knee.

"I needed fluid taken off it every week and I needed anti-inflammatory and painkillers every day to get through training and games."

Now settled into an off-field role with the Bulldogs, Turner does not run for more than 15 minutes because of the discomfort.

"At the back end of my career I couldn't do things with my daughter," he says. "I had to be selfish so I could train and play. I had to sacrifice a lot of things. Even now it swells up. People have asked me to play in charity games but I can't."

Al Wilson

The pain of a knee injury well after his playing days deprived Al Wilson of the simple activity of playing footy with his son.

The two-time NSW player doesn't bother running any more because of the pain associated with tearing his medial ligament in his left knee three times in the last 18 months of his career.

"If I keep it in a bent position for two or three minutes, I can't straighten it for two or three minutes," Wilson says. "If I actually put it under any duress or stress, it will start to break down, so I don't run any more.

"The knee gives me a lot of bother. I have excessive scar tissue around the joint and it prevented me from playing knee footy with my son while he is growing up. He is at a height where I don't play on my knee."

The former Cronulla, North Sydney and St George player turned his hand to coaching lower grades at the Sharks, Parramatta and South Sydney in his retirement. A pinched nerve in his back was Wilson's only serious injury during a career spanning more than 100 games.

"My body is actually quite good," he says. "Unlike the modern day player, I played in an era where the physio was casual and if you wanted to see him, then you had to see him after you finished work."